CAR CLOCKER CROOK JAILED FOR 7 MONTHS
He reduced mileage to con his customers
A CROOKED car dealer has been jailed for seven months for clocking the mileage on vehicles in a £18,000 scam.
Joseph Lowther sold cars around the country after tampering with their mileage readings to bump up the price.
Some of the vehicles needed major repairs to make them roadworthy.
He left a string of unsatisfied customers who found Lowther impossible to contact after he had their money.
When police raided his home they found him hiding in a bedroom cupboard.
Lowther is the managing director of JL Cars, who operated from his home in Cowdenbeath High Street.
He bought motors from Central Car Auctions in Glasgow, altered the mileage and advertised them on internet sales site Gumtree at inflated prices.
Lowther, 37, appeared for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
He previously admitted forming a fraudulent scheme and committing offences in Kilwinning, Cowdenbeath, Aberdeen, St Andrews, Peterborough and elsewhere between June 6 and October 20, 2014.
On each occasion he tampered with the mileage to show a lower figure.
He conned £1900 from Geovan Boreman by claiming a Vauxhall Zafira he was selling him had 80,000 miles on the clock.
In fact, it had been past 116,000 when Lowther bought it at auction.
The cash was paid by phone and Geovan picked up the car at Kilwinning train station in Ayrshire.
Dev Kapadia, prosecuting, told the court: “He found the vehicle in a poor state of repair with faults, including an oil leak, water pump leak, engine noise, rust, dents, a boot that wouldn’t open and faults with the front and rear headlights.”
Lowther also obtained £3000 by fraud from Lorna Harley when he sold her a Land Rover Freelander.
Lowther told her the car’s mileage was 85,000 but it was at 121,000 when he bought it a month earlier.
Lorna found an electric window was not working and garage mechanics found “several faults including eroded brake pipes”, Mr Kapadia said.
Lowther also conned £3000 from Anthony Jones, over the sale of another Land Rover Freelander, advertised as having 76,000 miles but had been 144,000 a year earlier.
Among the others who were conned by Lowther were Colin Stevenson, who paid £3000 for a Land Rover Freelander, Becky Anderson, who paid £3000 for a clocked Mini Cooper, and Robert Paterson, who paid for £1575 for a VW Fox.
Robert was told the car had a year’s MoT and a new clutch. He discovered several defects including a faulty clutch and a local garage told him it needed work to make it roadworthy.
The court heard Lowther had lived in England previously and had a conviction for forgery there.
Despite this, he had recently been able to take over as licence holder at a Cowdenbeath pub.
Matthew Berlow, defending, said his client was a father of five children and his wife suffered from a serious illness.
Jailing him for 215 days, Sheriff Charles MacNair told Lowther: “With clocking, the financial aspect is not the only one to consider, there is also the safety aspect.”
It was in a poor state of repair with many faults